All you need to know is that barkley polled more mvp votes than hakeem in 87, 88, 90, 91, 92 and 93, despite having less wins than hakeem in most of those years (in 89 hakem finished 1 place higher in voting)

Even if you weren't around at the time, or can't remeber, doesn't it seem pretty clear that Barkley was generally regarded as the better player until 94?

EDIT: And he was still better in 94 till he got injured. And talk about revisionist history... hakeem never embarrassed Barkley in the 94 POs, Chuck was a walking corpse by the end of that series. He could barely get up and down the court.